Thomas More-Utopia

Saint Thomas More  born 1478 in London was a lawyer, author and statesman. In 1516 he published his most famous and discussed novel called „Utopia“ which depicts the social and political arrangements of the imaginary island country „Utopia“, narrated by a traveller called Raphael. Utopia in contrast to the well structured social life of European states with its perfectly arranged system, consists of no privacy and private property. Furthermore there are no means of payment or luxury; religion and religous practices beside artheists are  highly tolerated. According to Raphael, if man does not believe in (a) God or something higher, he is not worth trusting because he is certainly not able to „serve“ under any authority or principle beside himself. However, the novel and people clinging to its values are highly critizied because they follow the principles of a imagined future or referring to Raphel the „present“, and along with that they disregard the improvement of their own current society which is left imperfect. Therewith, the image of a place like Utopia and its attitude gets entirely rejected by Thomas More.

„Utopia“ is depicted as the fundament of utopian literature wherein ideal socities and the image of a „perfect world“ is pictured. The genre is often compared with science fiction novels because it takes place in the future, unlike More´s „Utopia“.

~ von mi am März 5, 2009.